


Everything Will Burn For You

by rhodee



Series: Anti Team Cap (but mostly, just Anti Cap) [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Author is Bitter, Civil War Team Iron Man, Consequences, Dark Loki (Marvel), Dark Tony Stark, End of the World, M/M, Not Sam friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, POV Steve Rogers, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Unreliable Narrator, Villain Tony Stark, i am so salty it's not even funny, my obsession with evil tony is slightly worrying, not Bucky Friendly, not team Cap friendly, only slightly, there's a bit of violence, you bet there'll be consequences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:20:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25288969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodee/pseuds/rhodee
Summary: “Peace in our time,” Tony says, like it explained everything.Behind him, the world burned.
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Avengers Team
Series: Anti Team Cap (but mostly, just Anti Cap) [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767649
Comments: 89
Kudos: 991
Collections: Iron Man, Marvelous Marvel, Salty Tony Stark, Team Iron Man/Anti Steve, Works worth reading a million times over





	Everything Will Burn For You

**Author's Note:**

> honestly this whole fic came from this one (1) dialogue: "peace in our time"  
> (and with a sprinkle of my obsession with evil tony, woohoo!)  
> also, this has literally been two weeks in the writing because i just kept procrastinating, and guys, the end of the world is a damn bastard to write.  
> hope you enjoy! :D

It had been two weeks since Steve left Tony Stark in Siberia. Two weeks since he looked Howard Stark’s son in the eye and incapacitated him using the same shield Howard Stark made for him. Two weeks since he left Howard Stark’s son freezing to death, while the older Stark had spent his entire life looking for a frozen body. 

It was a beautiful symmetry in the death of Tony Stark. It was a shame nobody could appreciate it. 

With Tony no longer polluting the picture-perfect image Steve had spent years trying to paint, things started to take a turn for the better. After two weeks of the Accords committee trying to fill the gaping hole Tony Stark left in his disappearance, the Avengers were called back to the States. It was a ruse to get the public to shift their attention from the missing billionaire to the return of their favorite heroes, and it wasn’t long before government officials and civilians alike welcomed the Avengers with open arms. Forgiven and forgotten; everything turned out just as Steve hoped. 

Nobody outside of the Avengers knew about Siberia. Steve intended to keep it that way. 

It felt like a huge weight off of Steve’s chest when Bucky and Wanda’s murder charges were dropped and dismissed as actions rooted from psychological trauma. Steve was back to being labeled the American hero, along with the additional title of a loyal friend and a loyal teammate after the Avengers were able to reveal what actually happened; provide their version of events that weren’t clouded by Tony’s assertive presence. Sam got his wings back – with a few impressive modifications of its own as a token of apology – while Clint and Scott went back to the promise they gave their families. The one person Steve was concerned about was Natasha. Last time he’d seen her, she helped him escape by putting down the King using her Widow’s Bite, and from the information he’d compiled, she’d disappeared soon after. If there was one thing Natasha could do, it was to vanish off the face of the Earth, and keep it that way until she decided she wanted to be found. 

So maybe he no longer had the only two agents he had initially started with, the only ones he had ever trusted, but Sam, Wanda, and Bucky gave him an inkling of hope that things could go back to the way they were. That, in the end, they could all be where they wanted to be. 

The blackout came first – right after Steve’s third press conference. It was the first one where all the new Avengers were present. Not even minutes after their vehicles had joined the New York traffic – Steve and Wanda in one car; Sam and Bucky in the other – did it happen.

A split second, and the world was consumed in darkness. Like someone put a dark blindfold over Steve’s face. 

Wanda muttered something in her native language just as the SUV they were in came to a slow stop, much like the rest of the vehicles on the road. Steve could only see the bare minimum of silhouettes outside – vehicles unmoving, people rushing blindly, speed increasing as seconds of darkness tick by. Their only source of natural light was hidden by a thick blanket of dark clouds. Phones, comms, even _watches_ – anything running on power – had snuffed out like a candle. It takes Steve a few seconds to adjust to the darkness before finally managing to get out of the car. He had been just about to brush it off as a mild concern (power outages had been frequent in the ’40s, after all) until– 

Until planes started to drop from the sky like flies. 

The sky was colored in spots of fiery orange – some far, some _so near_ that the heat prickled his skin like needles _–_ with fire licking along the sides of buildings that hadn’t already been toppled over by gliding airplanes. The Avengers had been quick to move, heading to the closest crash site not even three blocks away. 

The closer they got, the louder the screams. 

The closer they got, the more the limp bodies – caught when the plane surged through the road. All Steve can think about was how, merely five minutes ago, they had wrapped up a press conference promising to live up to their title as Earth’s best defenders. And five minutes later, New York was in flames. 

When they reach the epicenter of the crash site, Steve can barely comprehend what he’s seeing. 

People were _burning_ ; only a handful conscious enough to frantically set out the flames engulfing them head to toe. Some of them were staggering with blood oozing down their hands and legs, some crying, and several trapped under debris that only Steve and Wanda were capable of lifting. Lifeless limbs peeked out from underneath tonnes of rubble. Bucky, even without his prosthetic, helped lifting debris, trained eyes scouting for signs of life. Sam was off to the sides, guiding and calming injured civilians. 

In one section of the severed airplane, Steve spots a woman, crying while trembling hands helplessly try to unbuckle the seat-belt that’s keeping her trapped in her seat. Her shoulders desperately trying to shake off an unconscious man – _dead,_ Steve realizes a horrifying moment later – whose head keeps bobbing over to her side. There’s a metal panel wedged deep into her thigh, blood gushing out of the wound with no intention to stop. 

It takes Steve a sharp jerk to unbuckle the seat-belt, and the woman all but clings on to his arms, her words incoherent and drowned out by breathy cries. 

“You’re okay, ma’am,” Steve says, hoping his words aren’t as shaky or as terrified as he thinks they are. “The Avengers are here. We’ll need you to stay calm so we can stop the bleeding in your leg.”

“Some– something’s _happening_ ,” she chokes out between heavy breathing. “The _lights–_ it was so _dark–”_ Weak hands are holding on to his own as she shifts her weight to her good leg and uses Steve for walking support. The slightest pressure from her wounded leg touching the ground has the woman hissing in pain, nails digging into Steve’s skin. “I saw it. From the– from the window. Before. You have to– You have to save us. Please. _Please._ ” 

Trying not to let the growing panic show, Steve asks softly. “What did you see?” 

“ _Nothing_ ,” she whispers, her own words stricken in disbelief. “The whole world– I _couldn’t–_ couldn’t see _anything._ Was _so dark._ ” 

The new information has Steve’s mind spinning in fear. He’s heard about EMPs, but he’s never known one high powered enough to take out an entire city and _beyond_. It’s impossible for technology to be so advanced that it could bring planes down in a single minute.

And the one man who dabbled in the impossible had been left out in the cold. Literally. 

It only leaves Steve with the dawning horror that there’s a much bigger fish in the sea, and the threat that Stark had posed was a mere fraction of it. 

“Something’s happening,” the woman repeats absently, her gaze downwards and unfocused as Steve guides her to where Sam is.

“We’ll look into it, ma’am,” Steve consoles. He signals Sam towards him, and he comes in tow with a young man who’s introduced as a medical student. The student takes her away, replacing Steve as her walking support and helping her up on the hood of a nearby car to assess her thigh wound. 

“She said the whole world was dark. That she saw it from the window,” Steve says when the pair turns to him. 

Sam curses under his breath. “There’s not a lot we can do. We have no backup, no tech, no flying surveillance.” Sam looks visibly upset at the last addition. “We’re cut off from the whole world.” 

There’s a short silence where the pair lets the reality – _the helplessness –_ of the situation register. 

“Aliens?” Sam suggests, and Steve nods his head. 

“It’s the only explanation,” he admits, and his gaze travels to where Wanda’s using her magic to lift a massive slab of concrete from one of the toppled buildings; Bucky pulling out a body from underneath the trouble. He kneels in front of the body and presses a thumb against the man’s inner wrist before he looks at Wanda. Bucky does a curt shake of his head. 

_Dead._

The casualties keep increasing as they move from crash site to crash site. They couldn’t stay in one place too long – concern towards the several hundred more lives at stake all around the city pushed them to keep moving. They helped whoever they could, pulled several bodies – dead and alive – trapped under debris, and catered to wounds wherever they could. The one hospital that they passed was crowded with injured civilians, spilling out of the entrance in massive panic, but the hospital was just as helpless. Seventeen flights had crashed into New York that night. The casualties were in thousands, a majority of them from people succumbing to their wounds due to lack of medical attention. Without electricity, without proper lighting, there was nothing medical personnel could do. 

There was nothing the Avengers could do. 

What followed a few hours later was something that they couldn’t even begin to explain. A car bursts into flames at the end of the street, seemingly out of nowhere. Bucky is halfway through saying that it’s a possible gas leak when another car blows up much closer to them, as if deliberately proving Bucky wrong. Two more go off, one a few metres ahead of them that colors their vision in bright orange, and another one right behind them. Wanda uses her magic to activate a force field just as the second blast goes off, a blast that would have no doubt left Sam – the only non-enhanced – with severe injuries. 

“Okay,” Bucky says, nervous eyes flitting around as Wanda’s force field cocoons them. “Not a gas leak. Someone’s doing this.” 

“Or something,” Sam adds. Cars around them are still flying up into pieces, and Steve can see civilians screaming, orange glow illuminating their silhouettes as burning shrapnel rains down on them. Streetlights start toppling over from the sheer force of the explosions. Everything that Steve knew about the 21st century couldn’t explain how an entire street of cars could automatically blow up as if on command. 

“Some _thing?_ ” Someone asks, their words edging towards a hint of disbelief. Four heads whip around to find the source of the voice, a voice that is somehow all around them and yet nowhere in sight. “I assure you, inanimate objects are far from capable of this.” It’s right then that Steve zeroes in on a spark of green – floating in midair – expanding out to reveal a chest, a male torso until it reveals an all too forgotten, all too familiar face. Loki’s grin turns manic when he catches Steve’s eye. 

“Gods, however…” Loki trails off, finishing his sentence by shooting a golden-green burst of energy that blows up another car a few feet away. Wanda’s force-field protects the four of them, but Steve can’t ignore blood-curdling screams that follow the explosion. Steve can’t even bring himself to turn around. 

Loki had been imprisoned, and that was before Thor had come down and informed them of Loki’s unfortunate demise. 

“You were dead,” is all Steve can manage to say. The shock, the realization, and the dawning fear that this was Loki’s doing, took an unexpected toll on his verbal processing. Thor had been _so sure_ of Loki’s death. As much as Thor had looked utterly devastated at the time, Steve remembered feeling a glimmer of relief. 

“On the contrary,” Loki points out, still floating midair, because apparently that’s a thing Loki could do. Along with shooting energy blasts from his hands and appear out of thin air. Loki continues, looking more amused by the second. The flames around them are reflecting bright in Loki’s eyes. “I’ve never been more alive.” 

There’s not a hint of regret in Loki’s words, no remorse at the lives lost. He’d only wanted to _kill._ Steve’s suddenly thankful that Wanda’s managing to keep her force-field intact in case Loki suddenly decides to shoot an energy blast at them. 

“Why are you doing this?” Steve demands, and Loki’s answer comes in the form of two more energy blasts. More screaming. 

“Because I can,” Loki says, like it hadn’t already been obvious. The words send chills down Steve’s spine. “I wished to rule Midgard, and without Iron Man by your side, one could say–” Loki tilts his head in thought, as if recollecting something. “– _Earth’s Mightiest Heroes_ are helpless.”

“We don’t need Stark’s help to defeat you,” Steve bites back. He’s had enough of Tony being given credit for things the inventor had barely batted an eye towards. And that even in death, Tony would somehow manage to bring death and destruction on Earth like he always did. 

“Assuming he would offer, that is,” Loki answers dismissively. As if on cue, Steve spots flying human silhouettes approaching them from a distance, and it’s only when the glow of the fire illuminates them, revealing the familiar glint of metal, does Steve realize it’s the Iron Legion. 

“Thank god,” Sam says the same moment Steve thinks it. The flicker of hope that FRIDAY _finally_ sent in the cavalry soon dwindles into nothing when the Iron Legion comes at an immediate standstill right beside Loki, some of them lingering behind. Glowing blue slits are focused solely on the four of them. 

Which brings Steve to the next horrifying realization. 

That FRIDAY runs on power. 

That it couldn’t have been active at all, much less send in reinforcements. 

Wanda lets out a pained noise from behind him, the force field clearly draining her powers. 

“It’s okay,” Steve says, turning halfway and motioning her to let it go. It’s only then that Steve realizes the Iron Legion has them surrounded on all four sides. Wanda shakes her head, clenched teeth behind pursed lips. 

“I can take it,” she grits out and avoids eye-contact all together. Steve briefly meets Bucky’s eye before turning back to Loki, who’s lowered himself enough to be seated atop a car in an air of casual arrogance. 

“Surrender before it’s too late, Loki,” Steve says. “We’re not going down without a fight.” 

“And I will?” Loki asks, eyebrow raised in mock curiosity. He continues to stare at Steve, but Steve’s attention is shifted to the Iron Legion whose gauntlets are raised at them – repulsors glowing in obvious warning. He doesn’t have to turn to confirm that the entire fleet of Iron Legion is doing the same thing. 

They’re surrounded, and they’re without their weapons. Steve doesn’t have his shield, Sam doesn’t have his wings, and well Bucky– 

Bucky curses in Russian under his breath. 

Their only hope was Wanda, whose weapon was her magic itself. 

Steve’s had his fair share of experience dealing with arrogant, entitled men who deem themselves kings in their own warped environments. 

“You call yourself a god and allow stolen technology to do your work for you?” Steve asks. It may be a provocation, but if Steve’s right, it’ll be enough for Loki to call off the Legion and fight them face-to-face. It’s better than being disintegrated to ash by the force of a hundred repulsors. 

A nerve struck, Loki smiles thinly. He does a quick hand motion, thumb tucked in with four fingers slicing down and to the side. The force-field around them starts flickering, lasting a whole of seconds before it completely dissipates. Wanda lets out a heavy, shaky breath behind him. 

“Battle strategy does not include throwing insults and cowering behind a shield,” Loki says by way of explanation. The smile on his face is turning into something more sinister. 

“Funny story, that’s not the only thing Cap can do with a shield,” a new voice says from behind them, and _oh god._

_Oh no._

Steve turns, as does Wanda, Bucky and Sam. 

_This isn’t happening._

“Hey, Cap,” Tony grins. 

“Of course,” Loki says from behind them, like he isn’t the least bit surprised at Tony’s appearance. “You’ve only said that a hundred times.” 

And– _what?_

“Tony? You’re–” Steve starts, his mind is ringing with the implication of Loki’s words. They _knew_ each other? And Tony was… _alive._ He was supposed to be–

“A magnificent piece of ass?” Tony supplies. He does a dismissive shrug with his shoulders. “I know.” 

Tony’s just standing there, so casual and indifferent to everything around him like he couldn’t even be bothered with the burden to think twice. There’s the air of entitled arrogance that goes almost hand in hand with Loki’s as Tony looks around – taking in the burning cars and bodies around him, amusedly humming as if seeing them for the first time – but making no effort to do anything about it. 

There’s the familiar feeling of dread creeping up inside Steve. 

“Tony,” Steve asks, wary. Tony chooses the same moment to shoot a wink at Loki. “What did you do?” 

The billionaire turns his attention back to Steve, wide-eyed innocent. “Oh, I’m supposed to tell you things now?” 

The blackout. The explosions. Loki. Tony’s couldn’t-care-less attitude to what’s happening around them, his obvious _familiarity_ with Loki. 

The gears click into place.

Tony smiles the moment the realization is evident in Steve’s face. “Cat’s out of the bag,” Tony admits, having the gall to look sheepish, and yet, almost _proud_ at the same time. It looks _wrong._

Steve senses Wanda conjuring her magic, red filling the corner of his vision, and right before she can release it in Tony’s direction, she makes a choked sound. The magic in her hands dissipate, eyes flicking down to her abdomen where there’s the end of a metal pole jutting out of her stomach after having impaled her from the back. A garbled sound escapes her lips, the circle of crimson in her stomach growing bigger and bigger. 

_“No!”_ Someone yells, Steve thinks it might be him, as he rushes to brace her just as her legs give away. 

“No, no, no, no,” Steve repeats mindlessly, pure panic and fear consuming his mind. “Wanda, hey. Stay with me.” 

Bucky says something, so does Sam, but Steve can’t hear them, can’t make out anything except for the fact that Wanda’s _bleeding out to death._

“Oh, dear,” Steve hears Loki comment. “Is she dead?”

Wanda takes her last breath in Steve’s arms. All Steve sees is red. Raw, seething anger. He stands up, taking slow steps towards where Loki’s still seated atop a car. “You killed her.” 

“Does it hurt?” Loki asks, unfazed at Steve’s approach. “Witnessing the death of someone you cared deeply for?” 

Loki blinks out of existence just as Steve makes a reach for him. “Careful, Captain,” Loki says from somewhere behind him, and Steve turns just in time to see Loki holding a knife against Bucky’s throat. “You wouldn’t want to have a… _hand_ in your beloved friends’ death.” 

Bucky posture is tight; jaw locked in fear, and the way Loki’s gripping his shoulder looks excruciatingly painful, to say the least. Sam takes a step back, arms held up in a sign of surrender. “Hey, man. You don’t wanna do this. Bucky’s innocent.” 

“ _Man?_ ” Loki repeats, looking thoroughly offended at the title. “ _Anthony_ , did you hear what he just called me?” 

“I think it’s got a sense of affability,” Tony chimes in. 

Loki huffs out a breath, smiling. “Well, as long as it’s got a sense of affability.” In one swift movement, he lets go of Bucky. The next moment, Loki disappears. 

“Tony, stop this,” Steve says, a last-minute effort to appeal to whatever humanity was left in his friend. Over Tony’s head, Steve spots familiar green energy beams hitting a building until it starts to crumble. “This isn’t you.”

The building crashed down over a civilian filled street. 

Tony laughs derisively, shutting down any and all of Steve’s efforts. “Because, what?” Tony asks. “You know me so well?” 

“The Tony I know would never ally with Loki,” Steve says, his mind going back to the time Tony had taken a nuclear weapon to space if it meant beating Loki. And yet, the same man, not even four years later, is working alongside Loki to enslave Earth’s population.

“Funny,” Tony says, straight-faced. “The Tony you _knew_ was left for dead in Siberia. Now I’m the Tony you think me to be.” Tony takes a step forward, and a number of the Iron Legion floating behind him starts hovering closer. “The murderer.” Another step forward, and Steve unconsciously takes a step back. “The traitor.” Another step forward, but Steve, this time, stays rooted to the ground. “The villain in your picture-perfect world.” 

Tony takes a moment to look around, and then: “Or what’s left of it.” 

There’s the whine of repulsors charging, and before Steve can even see what they’re aiming at, bright light fills Steve’s vision, streamlining to where Sam was previously standing. 

He’s never known what Iron Man’s repulsors could do to a human. He wishes he never did. 

Bucky’s eyes are fixated on him; silent worry swirling within. It’s one of the few times he sees helplessness in Bucky’s eyes. Steve feels his gut twist, because for the first time, Steve feels like he can’t do anything about it. Bucky’s gaze slowly shifts to Sam, almost like it was his way of accepting fate. Tony still believes that Bucky killed his parents; he’s not going to let Bucky get away so easily. 

“Tony, please,” Steve pleads, unable to believe that Tony could be capable of being so… _ruthless._ He can’t give up– if he could just _reach_ Tony, _remind him_ of all the good times they had– “It doesn’t have to be this way. Stop this.” 

“So soon?” Tony asks, genuine surprise on his face upon Steve’s suggestion. “The day’s just begun. The night. Whatever,” Tony shrugs. “It won’t matter in time.”

The haphazard way Tony says it, the casualness of it, makes Steve’s hair stand on end. “What do you mean?” 

“You know,” Tony starts, and going by his tone, it’s apparent that he’s not about to answer Steve’s question. “Initially, I wasn’t keen on the whole Back to the Dark Ages. Lack of visibility, with uh,” Tony waves a hand around to indicate his surroundings, “with all the night. But _then_ Loki suggested we blow stuff up. Cars. Buildings. The like. Make it bright enough. Just so I could get a good look at your faces.” Tony narrows his eyes at Steve, then at Bucky, and back to Steve, as if observing and memorizing every detail in their face, and then grins. “Just as I’d imagined.” 

More buildings fall in the distance; green energy beams whizzing like lasers through the sky. The fire around them is building up, the heat prickling his skin now more than ever. People are screaming, kids and crying – he can _hear_ their desperate cries for help – and Steve needs to go. He _needs_ to help them. Tony’s staring at him, daring Steve to move, to be Captain America for the maybe last time, but all Steve can do is stare right back at Tony. His legs remain fixated on the bloody road. He can’t drown out the screams, but they become more and more frequent until it just feels like white noise.

And Steve can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. 

The repulsors whine again, like a message of his inevitable death and Steve knows he can’t do anything to stop it. Steve’s been hit with the repulsor once, just the once, in Siberia. It had only been a single shot, but it had been painful. This will no doubt be excruciating. The resignation feels a lot more painful than pain itself. 

It gets louder, and louder, and Steve waits for the white-hot fire. It doesn’t come. Or, it does, but it doesn’t hit Steve. 

Bucky screams. 

Steve screws his eyes shut, and they remain shut until Bucky’s screams feel like white noise too. 

He opens his eyes to the smug, complacent smile in Tony’s face, watching Bucky’s slow death. The fire around them had created a manic glint in Tony’s eyes, dark browns burning with the fiery orange around him. 

When Bucky finally stops moving, Tony turns back to Steve, a saccharine smile pulling at the corners of his lips. Over Tony’s shoulder, Steve can see orange silhouettes of people jumping off of the burning buildings, trying to save themselves from a slow death with a much quicker one. 

Loki appears right beside Tony, sporting the same smile as the billionaire, and Tony’s smile just grows wider.

They were standing by each other like they were right where they wanted to be. 

The Iron Legion starts moving, scattering in different directions, and Steve actually hopes that they’re retreating, holds on to the sliver of hope that it’s _over,_ when he hears the whine of repulsors all around him. Some near, some far, and the flames are brighter than ever, the screams louder than ever. 

Whether Tony's face is flushed from the heat or happiness, Steve doesn't know. Tony shares a smile with Loki, one that is oozing victory, and turns to Steve. 

“Peace in our time,” Tony says, like it explained everything. 

Behind him, the world burned. 

**Author's Note:**

> yep. that happened. 👀
> 
> On an additional note, I could see our beloved murder husbands maybe sparing Steve, because they know full well Steve won't be able to do anything to stop them - he'll try, of course. Maybe Steve tries (tries!) to get to Clint or Natasha (or Natasha, being Natasha, was in New York the entire time but was _Natasha_ enough to not be caught) but somehow Tony&Loki are always there, because y'know, it's just so much fun talking to Steve and seeing the variety of horrified expressions his face goes through the more Tony reveals his villain backstory. Just- beautiful. 
> 
> [my tumblr!](https://tornlinson.tumblr.com/)


End file.
